Friday, August 22, 2014

Ebooks on your desktop

The vast majority of you are not going to need this post. I'm writing it because every time an author (ahem, like me) lets her readers know that the ebook version of one of her books is on sale, there are always a few number of people who will write that they'd like to take advantage of the sale but that they don't have an ereader. The fact is, you don't need an ereader to read ebooks.So for that tiny minority who think apps are restricted to smart phones and tablets, I'm going to post instructions on how you can read ebooks on your computer:You download the desktop app of an ereader program (if there is one) to your computer and then you can use the ereader's store to purchase books and open the application on your computer to read them. For instance, here is a screen shot of the page where you go to download the Kobo desktop app:

From the Kindle app page: psst, links are down here, under the devices!

Click here for NOOK for Mac and NOOK for WindowsWhat about iBooks? Well, it doesn't look as though Apple has come through with a ereader app for Macs though it said it would last year. There are other apps you can buy to make reading books in the most popular ereading formats on your Mac, though, and here's a good article on the subject. Similarly, there are apps to let you read ebook formats on your Windows machine. (And where are they? That's what Google is for :-)This just solves the problem of "how do I physically read the ebook". I understand there are people who are politically opposed to reading a book if it isn't printed on paper. That's fine, though you should know that some independent bookstores sell ebooks, too. Then, once you decide to go ahead and read ebooks, you have another political decision as to which vendor you're going to support. Just remember that you probably want to stay with one ebook provider so you don't have books shelved electronically all over town.There! So you really have no excuse not to buy that tantalizing novel when you see the ebook version is on sale.